


dogs on the moon

by thilesluna



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Insecurity, Lucas is also mentioned and he's doing good good things, and feels like he's got a lot to live up to, and he's been through a lot, angus is just a kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 00:11:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12047226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thilesluna/pseuds/thilesluna
Summary: There are no dogs on the moon, but there's also no Angus or Magnus on the moon anymore.Angus studies, Magnus worries, there's a dog involved.





	dogs on the moon

Magnus shows up at random times. Angus isn’t totally sure when or why the man will come to the school, but there are steady knocks at his dorm room door and a broad smile when it’s pulled open. “How’s it hangin’, Ango?” he says, like it’s not weird that he’s on the school grounds and rapping on Angus’s door. “Wanna grab lunch?”

 

And Angus can’t refuse because it’s  _Magnus_ and any time to visit with the old Bureau crew is precious. 

 

This time, though, this time he might because it’s nearing finals week and he’s trying hard to go over and memorize a semester’s worth of arcane history and he feels like he’s just not  _getting_  it. After two years at Lucas’s school, he’s got a reputation to uphold. Everyone knows him. Everyone knows the kid who helped the IPRE crew and knows that he’s ‘going to do  _great_  things no matter what!’ 

 

It’s...a lot.

 

He appreciates the confidence, sure, but he feels like he’s constantly being judged based on this ideal set by his classmates and his professors. He’s nearing 13 years-old and everyone on the planet knows who he is. There’s a damn painting of him on Magnus’s shoulder’s hanging in the capitol building in Neverwinter. There are people who tell him how he’s so lucky to know Taako and Magnus and Merle, that he spends Candlenights with Lup and Barry, that he gets postcards from Lucretia and the not-moon and from all the ports that Davenport visits.

 

They’re right, of course. He got to do and gets to have a lot of things that others might desire, but there’s a part of him that feels extremely _un_ lucky to have already done so much so early. He’s helped to save the world with a secret organization and worked with the seven most famous people in the planar system and, well, that’s kind of hard to top.

 

He stares for a second at Magnus who’s leaning on the doorframe and grinning, stares just long enough that the grin starts to fade and the little worried crease starts to form between Magnus’s brows. “Angus?”

 

Angus shakes it off, rubs at his eyes under his glasses and tries to clear his head. “Sorry, I’m—I’m in the middle of studying and I’m not sure if I should really go out at the moment. I know you came a long way but this is my hardest class and I want to do really well because that’s what’s expected and I—”

 

Magnus puts a gentle hand over Angus’s mouth to get him to stop rambling. Angus frowns and makes an annoyed noise before taking a page out of Taako’s book and straight up licking Magnus’s palm. The man yanks it back with a yelp. “Gross, dude! Ugh, you and Taako with that dirty, gross trick, I swear to god.” 

 

“Maybe you shouldn’t cover people’s mouths with your hand, sir,” Angus retorts while Magnus wipes his hand on the side of his pants. He fixes Angus with a calculating look. The boy feels as though he’s been thrown under a microscope. He know that his clothes aren’t as neatly pressed as they usually are and that there are probably some bags under his eyes, but he thinks the disapproving look is a little much. He tries his best to flatten his unruly hair and tucks in the tail of his shirt that’s gotten rucked up in his all-nighter. “Look, Magnus, I—”

 

“Get your coat, Ango,” the man says, matter-of-fact tone in his voice leaving no room for argument.

 

(Which doesn’t mean Angus isn’t going to try.)

 

“But Magnus, sir, I’ve got my final and I can’t just—”

 

Magnus rolls his eyes and bends slightly to throw Angus over his shoulder. He carries the squirming, protesting boy into the room to grab his coat from the rack by the bed and then carries him right back out into the bustling streets of Neverwinter. Angus gives up the fight about a minute in because 1) Magnus is way stronger than him and 2) he’s really, really  _tired_. “You need a break little man,” Magnus says, finally setting Angus down in the sunny park a block from his dorm.

 

Angus does his best to brush the myriad wrinkles and the invisible dust from his clothes, frowning at Magnus. “You didn’t have to carry me the whole block, you know.”

 

Magnus grins, clapping Angus on the shoulder. “Gotta get those carries in now, dude. Soon you’re gonna be as tall as me and I’m gonna be old as shit and not able to carry you at all!” He says it with a smile but there’s something there. There’s something in the way he tugs absentmindedly at his sideburns that are starting to get a little grey.

 

“I’ve grown 2 inches this year alone,” Angus says, giving him an out. “Maybe I  _will_  be as tall as you! I’m not—I can’t remember how tall my parents were—” or anything else about them, really “—but I think my grandpa was kind of tall? I only mostly knew him when he was bedridden but, maybe McDonald’s are tall!”

 

Magnus ruffles his hair and Angus tries to shake him off with a wry grin. “I think you’re gonna be bigger than me, Ango. Just wait until Fantasy High School.” They walk side by side for a while in the warm sun and Angus relishes in the feel of it on his face. He’s been in his room for nearly two days straight and being out in the world is a nice change of pace.

 

“Where are we going?” he finally asks when they pass the duck pond for the second time. 

 

Magnus shrugs. “Had a couple ideas but where do you wanna go?”

 

“Doesn’t matter to me. I’m just glad to be outside,” Angus says with a laugh, closing his eyes and tipping his head back to feel the full embrace of the sun.

 

Magnus chuckles too, resting a warm hand on the middle of Angus’s upper back. “Maybe you can help me run an errand then?”

 

“Yeah, Magnus. That’d be nice.”

\------------

The errand, it turns out, is a _dog_.

 

“He’s so cute, sir,” Angus says, cooing over the puppy in his arms. Magnus is loaded down with puppy supplies like food and leashes and toys—so many toys. Fantasy Petco must be having a great sales day now that Magnus has gone through—and delegated Angus to carrying the little thing (it’s actually not that little, even for a puppy. It’s long, all legs and snout and tail as it wiggles in Angus’s arms). “What kind of dog is he again?”

 

“Scottish Deerhound,” Magnus says, proudly. “They’re great working dogs but they’re super fun and playful too. He’s going to be my prototype.”

 

“For the protection school?” Magnus had mentioned the idea a few times in their previous lunches.

 

“Exactly!” the man replied. They dumped the supplies into the back of Magnus’s wagon and continued back to the park where they started their day. The afternoon is spent chasing the dog around a big grassy field and Angus feels like his head is clear for the first time in a week. The puppy is tall and pretty big, but still not faster than a 13 year-old boy though he doesn’t really seem like he wants to run away at all.

 

The sun has started to set, the sky burning bright red and orange when the puppy—named Johan, which sends a pang through him and he knows Magnus feels the same—finally tires and falls asleep in Angus’s lap while they sit beneath an oak tree. Angus leans up against Magnus and watches the steady rise and fall of the dog’s chest. Being so surrounded in Magnus’s warmth, Angus can feel the exhausting creeping into his bones as well. “How’d you know?” he asks, voice quiet so he doesn’t disturb the sleeping puppy.

 

Magnus pauses in his carving—a miniature of the dog currently sprawled across Angus’s lap. “Know what?” He’s trying to play dumb in that way adults do when they don’t want a kid to think they’re being babied. Angus is _very_ familiar.

 

“How’d you know I needed a break like this?” Angus asks plainly. He strokes Johan’s wiry fur, playing carefully with his ears.

 

Magnus shrugs. “We all need a break sometimes.”

 

“Magnus—“

 

“Lucas might’ve mentioned that you had a big exam coming up,” he admits. It’s funny, but instead of annoyance, Angus feels a flood of affection surge through him. He still gets caught up in the way things were _before_ when there was no one there to care if he went a few nights with out sleep or if he was struggling. He thinks back to all the other times Magnus has dropped by and realizes that Lucas had been to visit him a day or so before, every time. “Besides,” Magnus goes on, “there really wasn’t anyone else I’d want to share today with.” This second thing is said quietly, like a secret that Magnus isn’t sure he should tell.

 

Angus wants to ask why. He wants to know _Why me?_ but the reality is that he already knows. He knows that the same love that has him calling Magnus weekly, the one that has him writing letters to Taako and leaving Fantasy voicemails for Merle, is the one that makes Magnus travel a half day just to get lunch or to watch a soccer game and reaching out when Angus needs it most.

 

Instead, he rests his head against Magnus’s shoulder and watches the sun sink lower and lower in the sky. Eventually, the careful shifting from the carving returns, jostling Angus ever so slightly, the ripples of Magnus through his body rock him gently and in turn, Johan across his lap. There’s a metaphor somewhere in there, Angus thinks, about the way people can change each other but he’s not in the right place to dig it out. Instead, he says, “Me too, Magnus.”

 

Magnus mutters something to himself and suddenly the arm beneath Angus’s back slips out from under him and moves around his body, pulling him closer, nearly onto Magnus’s lap. The puppy stretches, momentarily awakened by the shifting, but he falls back under within seconds.

 

Angus watches Magnus’s knife make sure strokes through the wood, hypnotizing in a way that pushes him further and further from the realm of waking himself. The last clear thought he has before sleep takes him is that he’s a very, very lucky boy.

**Author's Note:**

> hey i love angus and magnus and i want them to be a happy family forever thanks
> 
> (yell at me on tumblr @geargieee)


End file.
